Like krugorg on the 13th, I struggled a bit coming up with an idea for the 14th Salon competition, but then I reread his thread and he said "when all else fails, go with something you like to view!"

I live in the Litchfiled Hills of Connecticut. I just went through Sandy. No laughing matter. Power was down from Monday 6PM through last night 2AM. No picnic. And it may go down again to complete the work.

Anyway, after a rather hectic, frenetic 5 days including the weekend run-up to the storm, I am looking for some "Peace and Tranquility.

Of course this is Salon is open to wide interpretation. This could be a portrait, a landscape - in short, anything that you think represents or embodies peace and tranquility. I am attaching a recent that I think works for this theme. Of course this shot is not in the running, it is just an example.

Feel free to pull something from your image archive, but as always we are hoping that this is a good excuse to go out and capture something new.

1. Either take a picture that matches the nominated theme or select one from your portfolio. You must be the photographer that created the picture in order to enter it.

2. Shots can be uploaded from any gallery, Mu43 or whatever is your preference.

3. To enter your photo after uploading, copy the code in the Linked Image box and paste it into a reply to to this message. You can use the Quick Reply box at the bottom of this page.

4. Only one entry per salon, please. If you want to withdraw an entry and replace it with another, that is OK, but you must make it clear in the post containing your replacement picture that this is what you intend doing.

5. The decision of the curator at the end of the challenge is final - don't give him a hard time about it: this is just a friendly photo challenge, after all!

6. The person who submitted the chosen picture will assume the responsibility of curator and as soon as possible post a message in a new thread in the Mu-43 Contests and Challenges forum, with details of the new theme. That opening message must include a copy of these instructions, which also double as the rules.

This might be an odd take on the theme, but sitting down in a coffee shop and just forgetting about my worries and listening to laughter, observing people going on with their lives and dreaming up their stories, or just watching the world go by and remembering how wonderful life is, is heaven to me.

This one was shot on 17th June this year to the north of my university in the city where I live, after graduated I never stopped thinking of getting back there and breathe like I did before. It's a crowded city I'm living in, and there are very few places I can find feels quite like this.

Taken last evening with my OM-D and an ancient Tamron 300mm f/5.6 (pre-SP), hand held. It's a lot easier to hand hold than my Canon FD 85-300 f/4.5! So I take it to the lake often. $40 lens but I think it's okay, with zero flare pointed into the sun.

No time to edit this, so it's uncropped and just a jpeg exported from the RAW file. It was a very tranquil evening. I was also having fun shooting young couples walking or sitting as it has been a warm autumn, thus far.

Thanks for all that participated. I wish there had been more, but none of that is a reflection on any of you. Hard choices here for me. Here are my top three in keeping with folks in past.

Third: jyc860923 So close in so many ways to the one I posted. Beautiful. My biggest issue with this photo is that there is no point of focus for me. On the other hand it is a beautiful idyllic and tranquil scene, and you definitely get the "hit the spec" perfectly award...

Second: tanngrisnir3. I like this very much. Something about it really is quite tranquil, and this is a bit of a surprise since tranquility so often has to do with water. Perhaps the fog grandfather's it in... I do love mornings like this. I'd have loved to have explored that scene a bit more. To me the lack of detail and even loss of focus... it sort of trails unremarkable into the fog are all things that actually draw me in. If you did explore this more, I'd invite you to throw up a few of those frames in this thread.

First: Scarbrd: Love it. I get passing storm from this, and it's leaving tranquility in it's wake. I sort of started this thread with something like that in mind. Had just gone through the hurricane and was looking for some peace. This is beautiful.

Others:

rhoydotp: Out of the box thinking is a great thing. Does not work perfectly for me, but the photo is a good one, and I wanted to recognize that.

KVG: Also out of the box. Good one. Nice tones. The disembodied head freaks mo out a little...

Luke: I am with you on this one. not enough recognizable detail for me. I'd never have worked out that it was a boat probably. Not a criticism, just me... good idea.

mkee: I enjoy kayaking and canoeing very much myself, and this is indeed a very tranquil scene. It might have netted a place in the top three but for the somewhat blown highlights... no worries, it's a nice shot and gets "tranquility" perfectly for me. Only a technicality kept this from placing... :smile:

macalterego: Nice. Love the colors. Reminds me of any number of tidal ponds that I know here along the east coast. Late in the day, very tranquil indeed.

fin azvandi: Nice shot. Again, a technicality. the scene overall is tranquil, but the photo is o dominated by the stone that it does not embody tranquility so much as, say, "solidity..." Can't quite summon it, but like that. Love the sharpness of the rock and hallow depth of field. Most folks would have tried for sharp throughout. Subtle subject isolation works well here.

sac: Serenity in a word. Well done. I have never been able to do this without blowing highlights on the bird. Very nice.